For most of the past decade, the big offering from real estate tech firms has been "white-label" solutions. This has been particularly true for all-in-one platform providers. However, the focus has been on customization. This has been in an attempt to help real estate brokerages differentiate their tech stack by offering something that looks or feels different from what their competitor down the street provides. 

As a result, for a time, customization thrived. The white-label effort grew. Customization allowed real estate brokerages to deliver unique content — such as flyers, postcards, and social media posts — inside a platform displaying the logo and brand colors. This "skinning" of tech platforms made the tools look unique to each brokerage's branding.  

The surface appearance was a cohesive offering for agents and clients alike. But here's the truth: Customization is only skin-deep — and it's outdated technology.  

The problem is that almost all these customization efforts fall short. Changing a color scheme to match a brokerage's brand is nice. But when the only difference between a tech platform offered by two competing brokerages is the color and logo, that's not a truly competitive differentiator.  

Moreover, these real estate tech firms built these "white-label" platforms on old software code. As a result, these legacy systems can't integrate seamlessly with breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or computer vision advances. 

Customization is now the old way. New platforms enable a new way of growing one's business, and this way is through personalization. 

Personalization vs. Mass Customization 

As it relates to real estate tech, mass customization provides a user experience tailored to a group, not an individual, and delivers content developed for users with similar interests.  

Customization can sometimes allow the end user to make changes to their preferences, but those changes are limited to a range of options that the tech provider chooses, not the individual user. 

Personalization resolves this problem by giving individuals more control to better match their needs and preferences. However, personalization also goes deeper than customization when it comes to delivering content by learning the choices a user is likely to make.  

Customization compared to personalization is like searching for a specific movie you've seen already on Netflix versus watching the next show Netflix will play based on your viewing history.  

Here's a real-world example of customization. The NFL Browns play at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, while Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is home to the NBA Cavaliers. FirstEnergy and Rocket Mortgage did not build those facilities, but they did pay for the right to add their name and branding to an existing platform. So, the building has a "skin" or brand on it. That's customization. 

The future focus of technology is moving more deeply into personalization: It's the next phase beyond mass customization. 

Personalization is powerful when delivered the right way. Think about how it works when shopping on Amazon for a specific item. After you put the item in your cart, Amazon recommends other related items. Those recommendations are based on a customer segment that, like you, shares interests and has purchased the same (or similar) products, but it also considers your personal purchase history and preferences. 

Personalizing the user experience at Amazon has become so successful that they now offer a solution built on the AWS cloud platform to other businesses through Amazon Personalize.  

Delta Gets Personal With DeltaNET 7®

Over the last couple of decades, because Delta Media Group® is family-owned and operated, we've been able to invest well over $40 million into our all-in-one platform, DeltaNET. The advantage this brings our clients is innovation through evolution and iteration. 

The latest evolution of our DeltaNET, DeltaNET 7 is the biggest investment ever of our resources, including time, money, and development hours. DeltaNET 7 debuts as the most advanced, simple-to-use, all-in-one platform available for the real estate industry. By design, it's destined to remain cutting-edge through future evolutions. 

The biggest barrier for real estate tech firms to become part of the personalization movement is outdated or legacy software code. For users, this means their all-in-one tech platform needs a complete makeover every few years. Otherwise, they will be stuck with the limits of mass customization and miss out on the newest or best tech. 

Some tech providers may even attempt to lay claim to new offerings that use AI, machine learning, or computer vision. But unless these firms invest millions and millions of dollars on a complete software code overhaul, full integration won't be possible, and the impact of using their new tech will be, at best, limited.  

DeltaNET 7 is designed to take us (the developer) out of the picture when it comes to brokerages making our all-in-one platform their own. As a result, brokerages and their agents don't have to wait for a software development "sprint" cycle — which will likely be months down the road — to see the changes they want. Instead, they can make those changes themselves. 

For the first time, large real estate brokerages can have their own custom-branded platform to meet individual needs based on specific roles, ranging from agents to admins to other support staff. In addition, DeltaNET 7 uniquely allows ultra-personalization that features down-to-the-button design and navigation — which brokerages can fully control to amplify their brand — going way beyond the antiquated "white-label" offerings in the market today. 

DeltaNET 7 is real estate's most personalized, automated, and simple-to-use all-in-one platform. 

Brokerages Can Leap Over the Competition 

McKinsey & Company, a global research firm, points to individual choice and configuration as the next wave of tech innovation. More than 70% of consumers today expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.  

Machine learning, AI, and, eventually, the full potential of computer vision will change, if not revolutionize, the real estate tech world. In addition, all these new tech improvements fuel personalization.  

Opportunities to create competitive differentiation have always driven, to some degree, technology decisions for brokerages.  

But with the personalization movement comes an opportunity for brokerages to make an all-in-one platform theirs alone. 

The bad news is many brokerage firms will potentially miss out on the opportunity to leap over their competition because their current tech provider can't keep pace. But there's also good news: The new DeltaNET 7 makes it easier than ever for brokerages to switch providers. 

Impact on Business Growth 

The rapid acceleration of new technology will take brokerages beyond differentiation and into the world of individualization. The immediate impact is two-fold.  

First, brokerages will dramatically increase the value of the tech they are providing their agents. Second, agents will dramatically increase the value they are offering their clients. 

The personalization movement will help brokerages and their agents grow their businesses. Personalization creates a deeper connection between buyers and sellers. It can deliver the right content at the right time to the right customer through the power of machine learning and automation. 

At Delta, we need to look no further than our My Customer for Life digital marketing tool for the impact DeltaNET can have on business growth. This dynamic email newsletter features new and unique weekly content based on each client's interests and behaviors. With a stunning 65% click-through rate, content is automatically customized to each user's interests based on previous engagement. In addition, brokerages can individualize elements of the newsletter to include branding and agent information. 

For a brokerage in New Hampshire, one monthly email targeting 22,000 individuals generates 53% of their website traffic and 33% of their leads.

Regional brokerages in North Carolina and New York also deploy automated marketing tools, including Market Watch Reports, new listing alerts, push notifications, and the My Customer for Life program. As much as 10% of their website traffic comes from these automated tools. 

DeltaNET 7 will help brokerages drive even greater business growth as it leverages the best of new tech in all the tools it offers agents. 

Ongoing Demand For Innovation 

While DeltaNET 7 is a technological breakthrough, we won't rest on its success. Our customers demand we help them stay current today and in the future. 

The Delta Real Estate Leadership Survey, polling more than 100 top real estate brokerage leaders, found that more than 80% of leaders believe it's "important" or "highly important" for technology firms to innovate to keep their systems cutting-edge. 

Brokers want agent training programs that are individualized. Agents want individually configured dashboards solely displaying the information they want to see. Clients only want to read content that's relevant to their current interests. 

All of this is possible today and goes well beyond the standard white label with DeltaNET 7. If you are not working with Delta today, ask yourself this question: Can your tech provider deliver the personalization your brokerage, agents, and clients expect?