Households

Contacts pulled from Wealthbox or Redtail, or imported via spreadsheet upload, can be grouped by Household. This lets you send one email or handwritten card to a Household, rather than to only one person in the household or to both people separately.

Note: Households must be enabled for your account. Contact Levitate Support to turn on Households or the Send to Household By Default preference.

How Household Email Delivery Works

When you send an email campaign with Group recipients by household turned on, Levitate groups the household into one household send instead of two separate individual sends. The email is addressed to both members (e.g., "Hi Mike and Sally").

If both household members have an email address, both will receive the same household-addressed email. This ensures neither spouse misses it. In your email reporting, this will appear as one household send, and the household name will display in reporting.

If only one household member has an email address, only that person will receive the email, still addressed to both members of the household. A household member who is unsubscribed, has a bounced email address, or can't receive email is skipped.

Grouping only applies to contacts that are already linked in a Household. If your account doesn't have any Households yet, the email is sent to each contact individually even with grouping turned on.

Grouping a Send by Household

Email Campaigns

When you're setting up an email campaign, turn on the Group recipients by household toggle near the top of the Recipients panel, above the Showing dropdown. The recipient list updates to show your contacts grouped by household. The same setting is also available as Display recipients by household in Advanced Filters, and the two stay in sync.

The toggle appears only when Households are enabled for your account. It isn't shown on any email started from a dashboard card (for example, policy renewals, reviews, and birthdays) or on AI campaigns, so you can't turn household grouping on or off for those sends. If your account has Send to Household By Default turned on, those emails are grouped by household automatically, except birthday emails (see the Note below).

When the email recipient list is grouped by household, household rows with more than one member display an info icon. Hover over the icon to see the Household Information tooltip, which lists each household member's name and the email address that will be used for the send. If a member has no email address on file, the tooltip shows "No email address" for that person.

Handwritten Cards

When you're setting up a handwritten card send, click Advanced Filters in the Recipients panel, check Display recipients by household, and apply your filters. The Recipients panel shows Grouping recipients by households while grouping is on.

Note: If your account has the Send to Household By Default preference turned on, emails start with household grouping already applied. Birthday emails started from a dashboard card (Happy Birthday and the age-milestone cards such as Turning 65, 72, 73, and custom Turning XX) are the exception. They start with household grouping off, so each spouse's birthday email goes to that contact alone.

Grouping by household makes cards and emails feel more personal. Instead of only one half of a couple receiving a card or email addressed to them, the household is addressed as a pair.

Redtail Families and Levitate Households

Redtail allows users to define families within its system. Each family is made up of a 'Head of Household,' which is generally the first contact from Redtail that's associated with that family unit, and a 'spouse.' Tertiary family members such as grandparent, grandchild, child, etc. can be added in Redtail, but they don't pull in as part of a Levitate Household.

Wealthbox Households and Levitate Households

Wealthbox allows users to define households within its system. Each household is made up of two contacts in Wealthbox, both of which can be interchangeably labelled head, spouse, or partner. Tertiary family members such as grandparent, grandchild, child, etc. can be added in Wealthbox, but they don't pull in as part of a Levitate Household.

Spreadsheet Imports and Levitate Households

If you aren't integrated with Redtail or Wealthbox, you can upload a spreadsheet with Household identifiers. For the households to import correctly, the spreadsheet needs specific column headers.

Levitate automatically maps columns with these names to Household Identifier:

• Household
• Household Name
• Household Id
• Household Identifier

Levitate maps columns with these names to Household Relationship:

• Relationship
• Household Relationship
• Household Title

For grouping by household to work, the relationship in the spreadsheet must be one of these values (capitalization doesn't matter):

• Spouse
• Partner
• Husband
• Wife
• Head
• Head of Household

Any other relationship value, such as Child, imports without an error, but that contact isn't grouped into the Household.

The Household Identifier can be any value, such as a policy number, "Smith Family 1," or a unique ID from your client database. The two people in a Household just need matching identifiers.

For upload steps, see Uploading Contacts via Spreadsheet.

How Households Work

A Household is an association between two distinct contacts. It doesn't merge the contacts.

Some couples share an email address. To keep them as two separate contact profiles instead of merging them, add an AdditionalID column to the spreadsheet you're importing. With an AdditionalID, they stay distinct contacts in the same Household.

For two contacts to be grouped into a Household, both of the following must be true:

• The Household Identifier (any value you choose) must match between the two contacts.
• A Household Relationship must be included, using one of the values listed above.

Once two contacts are in a Household, each contact profile shows a Spouse of key fact with a household icon, linking to the other member.

Deleting Household Key Facts

You can delete household key facts and household connections between contacts. On a contact profile, hover over the Spouse of key fact and click the trash icon. When asked "Do you want to delete this key fact?", confirm to remove the household connection.

Sending Automations by Household

Accounts that have Households enabled and configured can send an Automation by Household rather than to each individual. To do this, check Send to Households for this automation in the automation's trigger settings.

When you apply an automation to contacts, the Send to households? checkbox in the apply-automation window controls the same setting for that run.

If your account has the Send to Household By Default preference turned on, applying an automation to contacts sends by household. When you open a birthday or age-milestone email from an automation in the campaign editor, it starts with household grouping off, so each spouse's birthday email goes to that contact alone.

Household Names in Email Reporting

When sending by household, the household name shows up in email reporting. To see it, go to Reporting > Group Email and open the campaign.

FAQs

Q: What does it mean to send an email "by household"?

A: When you turn on Group recipients by household in an email campaign, the system sends a single email to a household rather than separate emails to each individual contact. This helps keep communication streamlined and personalized for couples or shared relationships.

Q: Who receives the household email?

A: Both members of the Household receive the same email, provided each one:

• Has a household relationship of Spouse, Partner, Husband, Wife, Head, or Head of Household
• Has a valid email address
• Isn't unsubscribed and doesn't have a bounced email address

Q: Will both people in the household see the email?

A: Yes, as long as both are eligible (see above). The email is addressed to both (for example, "Hi Mike and Sally"), and each recipient receives the same message.

Q: When does Levitate send emails by household?

A: This behavior only applies when:

• Group recipients by household is turned on for your campaign
• The contacts are identified as part of the same household (such as spouses)

Q: What if I don't want to send emails by household?

A: If you prefer to send individual emails instead, simply leave Group recipients by household turned off when creating your campaign.

If you have questions about household settings or want help configuring your campaigns, Levitate Support is here to help.