Frequently asked questions

BeMarketing is Bjorn Engels and Raphaël Horvat. Bjorn is a web developer, AI expert and digital marketing consultant. Raphaël specialises in online advertising and creative work. We have been helping companies with their digital marketing since 2016. Our office is in Gingelom (Limburg), with a satellite office in Liège.

No. We used to work as an agency with a larger team, but we deliberately chose a different model. Today we are two consultants who work closely with a limited number of clients. You work directly with the people who do the work, without account managers or layers in between.

That depends on what you need. A website is a different thing from a fixed day a week in your team or a custom back office. That's why we don't put prices on the site. In the first call, though, you get an honest estimate straight away, followed by a written proposal.

It depends on the assignment. On-demand consultancy per half day or full day. Ongoing marketing support on a monthly basis. A fixed monthly fee for larger clients and long-term engagements. A quote for projects with a fixed start and end, such as a website or online shop. If we work on site at your premises, we charge by the hour.

No. A lot of work goes faster with AI these days, and we don't hide that. We get to the core: what we do, for whom, what it delivers and how we measure it. Then we build faster than we used to. Our focus is on taking work off your hands, improving your processes, strong campaigns and more leads and sales.

Because that's where the real value lies. Delivering a campaign, website or tool is quick these days. But if nobody first asked who it's for, what it should achieve and how it fits into your processes, you quickly build the wrong thing. We answer those questions together, and only then do we get to work.

No. Ongoing engagements can be cancelled monthly. We trust our work: if things go well, that's reason enough for both sides to carry on. For clearly defined projects such as a website, we draw up a clear quote with a fixed scope.

You do. Ad accounts, analytics, your website and the software we build specifically for you are in your name or are your property. If you ever stop working with us, you take everything with you. Only our own software, such as our plugins and the Rule Zero ERP, remains ours.

No. We want to be able to stand fully behind our work and behind the people we work with. If we think we're not the right partner, or that a project isn't a good fit, we say so honestly. Sometimes we then refer you to someone in our network.

We mainly work for B2B companies and online shops. We're a good fit for technology, IT and software, engineering and industry, biotech, real estate and property development, audio, video and music, video games and trading card games, and animal welfare. Another sector is no problem: complex products and long sales cycles are exactly what we get excited about.

With a 30-minute call with Bjorn, online or at your offices. Together we see whether there's a match and what you need. Then comes an intake and a concrete proposal. We only start once you agree.

Within one working day. Often faster via WhatsApp. Book a call directly in the calendar and you have a fixed time straight away.

Yes, if there's a clear ambition and we can build something together. We do work with a limited number of clients at a time, so that every engagement gets the attention it deserves.

Dutch, French and English. We create campaigns, content and websites in all three languages, and most of the websites we build are multilingual.

Our office is at Ambachtsweg 7 in Gingelom, Limburg. In Liège we have a satellite office, which we share with our online shop Rule Zero.

All of Belgium. From Gingelom we can quickly reach all of Limburg (Sint-Truiden, Hasselt, Genk) and the province of Liège. Every week we're with clients in the Antwerp region. For East and West Flanders, Raphaël is close by. Driving further is no problem for us.

Both. We like to handle short check-ins online. But we're strong believers in personal contact, especially in B2B: you only really get to know a company, its customers and its team in person. That's why we come to you for the introduction, the intake and a regular meeting.

Yes. Bjorn works alongside clients at their office on a fixed day a week or a month. That way your marketing isn't at a distance but right next to your team, and opportunities come up that you'd miss through a screen.

Yes. From our satellite office in Liège we work for companies in the province of Liège and the rest of Wallonia, in French.

They help set the direction: target audiences, message, channels, content plan and the KPIs that tie in with your business goals. With us, they also do the work: campaigns, content, copywriting, mailings and reporting. So you get strategy and execution from the same people.

Yes. We do that for 4 Business Software and dbBase, for example, through five acquisitions. We take on the strategy, the planning, the execution and the reporting, with a fixed meeting slot. You have one point of contact.

Whatever is missing in knowledge or time. Often that's the digital strategy, campaigns, analytics and dashboards, or the technical work on the website and tools. At Democo Group and Ciril we work like this alongside the in-house marketing team, and at Luminus Solutions we have done so for more than three years.

Yes. Raphaël creates visuals, videos and posts, and we write the copy for social media, your website, ads, emails and sales material. We plan content around what's really going on in your company: projects, customers, employees.

With a dashboard that's always available, and a monthly meeting or report. We report on what matters to your business: leads, cost per lead, customers and revenue. Not on likes and impressions.

Campaigns often deliver the first leads within a few weeks. A strong marketing approach that delivers consistently usually takes three to six months. We agree up front what we expect and when, so you know where you stand.

Gladly, if it fits. At Luminus Solutions we help the IT team with web hosting, DNS and web security, we implemented a visitor registration system and we built a tool for employee advocacy. When you're part of a team, you take on whatever needs doing.

Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube), LinkedIn Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Microsoft Ads. We choose the channel based on your target audience and your goal, not the other way round.

Often, yes, especially for complex products and long sales cycles. You reach people by job title, sector and company size. The cost per click is higher than elsewhere, so a good target audience, a strong offer and correct tracking are important.

That depends on your market, your channel and your goal. In the first call we look at what budget is needed to see results within a reasonable time. You pay your media budget directly to Google, LinkedIn or Meta, not through us.

Yes. Raphaël creates the visuals, short videos and copy, in your house style. If we need a landing page, we build that too.

By measuring all the way to the customer, not just to the form. Where possible, we send qualified leads or sales back to Google, Meta and LinkedIn, so those platforms learn who actually becomes a customer. And with the right questions in your forms, we filter in advance.

Yes. We start with an analysis of what's running now: the structure, the tracking and the results. Then we keep what works and improve the rest.

We find out which work takes up your team's time every week and what AI or automation can take over. You get a plan with quick improvements (making better use of existing tools) and custom work (what we build). Then we build, test with your team, and teach your team to work with it.

What we've built and what runs every day. At Grapeness a language model automatically translates products and the entire Odoo website, and a back office creates price lists and wine profiles. At Rule Zero, Claude queries the shop's own ERP through an MCP server. And our own online shop gets visitors and revenue from AI assistants such as ChatGPT.

Anything with an API. We have already worked with ERP packages, WooCommerce, WordPress, Teamleader, Twenty CRM, Brevo, ActiveCampaign, Recruitee, bpost, FedEx, Mollie and the advertising platforms of Google, Meta, Microsoft and LinkedIn.

Usually not. An ERP, CRM or online shop rarely does everything exactly the way you work. Through the API we build what's missing alongside it, as we did for Grapeness. Your package stays the source of your data, and our software does the extra work.

No, and we don't want to be. We don't implement or configure ERP packages. At Grapeness we built a dedicated back office alongside Odoo through the API, because that solved their problem. To implement an ERP, you're best off working with a specialist integrator. We build what's needed alongside it for your marketing and your processes.

Platforms like that get you something quickly, but you stay tied to their platform and their subscription with AI credits, even when you no longer need those credits after a while. We build on an open, trusted stack on our own servers. What we build for you is and remains yours, and you can migrate it whenever you want.

Mainly Claude, from Anthropic. It's strong at programming and, with Claude Code, can work across an entire project. It works well with MCP, Anthropic's open standard for connecting AI securely to business data. It's careful, writes good Dutch and French, and by default data sent through the business API is not used to train models. This website was also built with the help of Claude.

Yes, as part of an AI engagement. We first look at which tasks take up time in your company, then teach your team to use the tools for exactly those tasks. Where a tool on its own isn't enough, we build further.

We program with AI, yes: we build with Claude. But Bjorn has more than ten years of experience in IT and web development and understands what the AI writes. Every project starts with an architecture and fixed working rules, logic involving money and stock is tested, and the decisions about security and data are made by us, not by the AI.

Laravel (PHP) and React, PostgreSQL or MySQL, and Redis. Everything runs in containers on our own bare-metal servers, with Nginx, a reverse proxy and Cloudflare in front. Proven, open technology that every good developer knows.

With mandatory two-factor authentication, roles and permissions per user, passwords and keys kept out of the code, Cloudflare and firewalls in front of the servers, and logging of what happens. AI only gets read access to your data, per user, revocable and logged.

On our own physical servers in Belgium, or on bare-metal servers in a data centre in Germany. If you want the software on your own server, that's possible too.

What we build specifically for you, yes. That is and remains yours: you can keep it running with us, host it yourself or have another party continue developing it. Our own software remains ours, even when we deploy it for you: the BeMarketing Cookie Manager, the Rule Zero ERP with the infrastructure and code behind it, and plugins we write ourselves, for example for WordPress.

For each application we choose which AI model we use and which data it gets to see. Customer data isn't simply sent to an AI. Your existing system remains in charge of the data, and our software only writes what it manages itself.

No. In everything we build, nothing is sent, published or ordered without a person pressing the button. At Grapeness, not a single email goes to customers without someone at Grapeness approving it.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard that lets an AI assistant such as Claude talk securely to your own systems. With an MCP server, that assistant can, for example, look into your ERP or CRM with read-only access and answer questions like "What do we need to reorder this week?". At Rule Zero that works every day.

With transactional emails: service messages that are separate from your marketing, such as a maintenance announcement. For 4 Business Software we built a small application for this that sends through their own mail server. Marketing emails continue to respect unsubscribes properly.

A small automation or app is sometimes ready within a few days. We build a complete back office in stages over a few weeks, and you can already work with the first parts while we keep building.

A WordPress site has a CMS that lets you manage the content yourself, but it needs ongoing maintenance: updates, security and backups. A static website consists of ready-made pages without a database or plugins. It's faster and more secure and needs almost no maintenance. We make the changes for you.

If you want to change a lot yourself, need an online shop or want features that require a CMS, choose WordPress. If your site mainly needs to persuade and bring in enquiries, and you don't want to worry about maintenance, static is often better and cheaper in the long run. We advise you during the intake.

We update text and pages for you, quickly and without fuss. If you still want to post news or blogs yourself regularly, we'll look at a simple editor, or WordPress may be the better choice.

Yes. Forms come with anti-spam protection and land in your inbox or directly in your CRM. There's a cookie banner, a privacy and cookie policy, first-party analytics and structured data for search engines. This website works that way itself.

No. AI tools help us reach a first design faster, but we start from your examples and the marketing intake, and then finish the design to fit you. We deliberately don't build sites with the typical AI look.

You sit down with a consultant who has more than ten years of SEO experience. Together we decide who the site is for, which pages are needed, what goes on them and how we measure success. After that we know exactly what we're building, and why.

We take that into account: a clear structure, copy that answers concrete questions, FAQs and structured data. And it works: our own online shop Rule Zero got 542 visitors via AI assistants in four months, and they were the most engaged visitors of any channel. We don't give guarantees. Nobody can.

Usually between four and twelve weeks, depending on the size, the number of languages and the integrations. A static website is often quicker. The pace also depends on how quickly copy and images are ready.

WooCommerce. It's flexible, you own everything, and you're not tied to a platform that takes a percentage of every sale. We connect it to your ERP, accounting, carriers and marketing channels.

Yes. Sometimes a thorough improvement of structure, copy, speed and tracking makes more sense than a new site. In the intake we tell you honestly what the best choice is.

The basics always are: structure, speed, metadata, structured data and copy that answers real questions. An ongoing SEO approach with new content is part of our consultancy.

We back up databases several times a day. For websites and applications we take full backups, stored on two servers in two locations, on top of the backups on the hosting server itself. We also back up the entire server infrastructure.

Yes. We host the websites we build on our own servers in Belgium and on bare-metal servers in a data centre in Germany. You can also stay with your own hosting provider.

Updates to WordPress, the theme and the plugins, backups, security, monitoring and help when something goes wrong. That keeps your site secure, fast and GDPR-compliant.

Almost none. There's no CMS, database or plugin that needs updating. So you don't pay for a maintenance contract. If you want changes to text or pages, we make them on request.

Yes. We migrated domains and hosting for Democo Group at group level, and we help the IT team at Luminus Solutions with hosting, DNS and web security. We also set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly for your email.

On websites we maintain, updates, monitoring and backups make sure this practically never happens. If something does happen, we restore a clean backup and find out how it happened. A static website carries hardly any of that risk.

Because your data then sits with Google, which also uses it for its own purposes. On top of that, ad blockers and browsers block Google Analytics more and more often, and American analytics tools are legally contested in Europe. With Matomo, hosted in Europe or on your own server, the data is yours and you measure more completely.

An open source analytics platform, comparable to Google Analytics. It runs in Europe (Matomo Cloud) or on your own server. You see visitors, channels, campaigns, goals and e-commerce, but your data isn't shared with an advertising network.

With first-party tracking, measurement happens through your own domain instead of through an external party. With server-side tracking, the data first goes to a server you manage yourself, and only then, filtered, to platforms such as Google Ads or Meta. That way you decide what gets shared.

Yes. We set up Matomo, configure the same goals and conversions, and run both side by side for a while so you can compare the figures. We can export and keep your historical data from GA4.

Yes. Google Ads measures conversions with its own tag, and we set that up correctly with Consent Mode v2. We use Matomo for the overall picture across all channels.

We set everything up the way the GDPR requires: anonymised IP addresses, data in the EU, a cookie banner with the right choices and Consent Mode v2, and a privacy and cookie policy that matches what your site actually does. For legal advice, we refer you to your lawyer.

Consent Mode v2 tells Google Ads and other platforms what consent your visitor gave. If you advertise on Google in Europe, you need it for conversions and remarketing to work properly.

Yes. A dashboard that brings your website, your campaigns and your leads together, so you can see at a glance what works. Tailored to what you want to keep track of.

Because we needed it ourselves, and existing solutions became too expensive or didn't fit. Our Cookie Manager replaces a paid cookie platform on more than fifty websites, and the Rule Zero ERP runs our own online shop. What works for us, we now also deploy for clients.

It shows a fast cookie banner, stores your visitor's choice, passes it on correctly to Google, Meta and Matomo via Consent Mode v2, and checks every week which cookies your site actually sets. Self-hosted, in Dutch, French and English.

For WooCommerce shops that have outgrown their plugins and spreadsheets, where purchasing, stock, pre-orders, shipping via bpost and marketing need to be aligned. We adapt it to your products, suppliers and processes.

Yes. There's a direct integration with bpost, including track and trace and checking the shipping invoices per parcel.

It picks up every new post on your LinkedIn company page and lets your employees, customers or ambassadors know straight away, by email or with a notification. They like, share and comment, and your post reaches far more people.

We deploy the software for clients, adapted to their situation, hosted by us or by you. In a call we look at what suits you.