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3 tips for digital marketing in the Netherlands

By Elin Box on December 2, 2022

The Netherlands is an attractive prospect to many businesses looking to expand internationally, and there are several reasons why.

The first reason is its digital maturity. As of November 2022, the Netherlands has a population of 17.2 million people. Of these people, around 16.4 million are currently online, which represents an internet penetration rate of 95%.

It is also a wealthy nation, with the Dutch typically enjoying high disposable incomes and being open to buying from foreign brands.

However, it can be challenging to enter a new market. Never fear, this blog post is here to provide useful three tips for digital marketing in the Netherlands! We have even more information in our full-length guide:

1. Apply for the Thuiswinkel Waarborg trust mark

If you would like to enter the Dutch e-commerce market, you are strongly advised to apply for the Thuiswinkel Waarborg trust mark. This is provided by the Dutch e-commerce association, Thuiswinkel.org. Having this trust mark displayed on your website is a sign to Dutch consumers that your website is trustworthy. Consumers will likely be wary of buying from any website that lacks this trust mark, so if you are serious about selling in the Netherlands, it really is worth getting.

2. Consider including WhatsApp in your marketing strategy

WhatsApp is the most popular social platform in the Netherlands, with a penetration rate of almost 90%. With this kind of popularity, you may want to use this channel as a way of providing customer service. Depending on your sector, customers may welcome this as a convenient way to communicate with your business and ask you questions.

3. Make sure you are formatting your prices correctly

Make sure you are selling in the correct currency: euros. This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many businesses see poor results simply because they have neglected to localise the currency on their website.

Also, when creating your price labels, be aware that the Netherlands is one of the countries that uses the comma as a decimal separator, and not the point. Furthermore, the comma is not used as a thousand separator; instead, groups of digits are typically separated by a point. This is the opposite of how numbers are written in English-speaking countries. The bullet points below illustrate this by demonstrating how to write one hundred thousand euros. When targeting the Netherlands, make sure that your prices follow the Dutch standard, to ensure clarity.

  • In English: €100,000.00
  • In Dutch: €100.000,00

Want to learn more?

I hope this blog post has been a useful introduction to digital marketing in the Netherlands. For more in-depth information and advice, read the full-length guide here! From reading this guide, you will learn:

  • the current digital landscape in the country, including internet penetration rates
  • the typical Dutch internet user, including their gender, age and online activities
  • device usage breakdowns and internet speeds in the Netherlands
  • search engine marketing in the Netherlands
  • how to localise your website for the Netherlands
  • social media marketing in the Netherlands
  • the local culture and language in the Netherlands
  • e-commerce in the Netherlands
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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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