Households
Contacts pulled from Wealthbox or Redtail, or imported via spreadsheet upload, are able to group contacts by Household. This will allow for one email, or handwritten card, to be sent to a Household rather than one individual in the household, or both individuals in the household separately.
How Household Email Delivery Works
When you send an email campaign using the "Display recipients by household" option, 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.
How to group by households when setting up a send
When you're setting up an email campaign or a handwritten card send, go through Advanced Recipients Filters to check off 'Display recipients by household.'
Step One:
Step Two:
Once you click, 'View Contacts' you will now see all selected contacts grouped by Household and get your send queued up!
This function will allow handwritten cards and email messages to feel much more genuine. Instead of only one half of a couple receiving a card or email addressed to them, the household will be addressed in terms of the 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 will not pull in as part of a Levitate Household.
Here is what a Family looks like in Redtail:
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 will not pull in as part of a Levitate household.
Here is what a Household looks like in Wealthbox:
Spreadsheet Imports and Levitate Households
For Levitate users that are not integrated with Redtail or Wealthbox, we allow for spreadsheets with Household identifiers to be uploaded.
To ensure that all information is pulled in correctly, the spreadsheet must contain certain column heads!
We will automatically recognize columns with these names and map them to ‘Household Identifier’ on our side:
- Household
- Household Name
- Household Id
- Household Identifier
Similarly for a column representing the relationship:
- Relationship
- Household Relationship
- Household Title
In order to enable grouping recipients when sending cards, the relationship specified in the spreadsheet must be one of these values:
- Spouse
- Partner
- Husband
- Wife
- Head
- Head of Household
And finally, the 'Household Identifier' can be anything— it just requires that the pair being imported as a Household have matching household identifiers— be it a policy number, something like 'Smith Family 1,' or any unique identifiers pulled from your client database.
How to upload contacts into Levitate via Spreadsheet
Example of a spreadsheet uploaded with Household identifiers:
How Households Work
Households work with two distinct contacts— a Household is an association between two contacts; it doesn't cause the contacts to merge.
First Name and Last Name are the basics! Above, you'll see our good friends Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Two distinct contacts.
We know that some couples share email addresses. If you would like for them to not merge, so that they can each have a distinct contact profile, you can add an AdditionalID column to the spreadsheet you're importing and that will keep the two individuals in the couple from merging. Here's what that would look like...
Now, because the AdditionalID was included, they are distinct contacts that are in a Household together.
For two contacts to be grouped into a Household, both of the following must be true:
- The Household Identifier (can be whatever you choose) must match between the two contacts.
- A Household Relationship must be included — terms that can be used are mentioned above.
This is what it'll look like:
Deleting household key facts
Now, Levitate users are able to delete household key facts and household connections between contacts.
Like with other key facts, if this household is pulling from an integration it cannot be manually removed in Levitate, but will need to be removed from the source integration in order to be removed.
Sending Automations by Household
Now, accounts that have Households enabled and configured are able to send an Automation by Household rather than by single individual.
Household names in email reporting
Now, when sending by household, the household name will show up in email reporting.
FAQs
Q: What does it mean to send an email “by household”?
A: When you enable the Send to Household option in Levitate, 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: If a household includes multiple contacts (such as spouses), Levitate will include all eligible members in the same email—provided they:
- Are marked as part of the household
- Have valid email addresses
- Meet the criteria for inclusion (e.g., spouse relationship)
Q: How does Levitate choose the primary recipient?
A: Levitate automatically selects one contact in the household as the primary recipient. This selection is based on factors like:
- Spouse status
- Whether they have an email address
- How long they’ve been in your system
You don’t need to manually choose the primary contact—Levitate handles this for you.
Q: Will both people in the household see the email?
A: Yes. When multiple household members are included, the email is sent to all of them and typically addressed to both (for example, “Hi Mike and Sally”). Each recipient will receive the same message.
Q: How are replies handled for household emails?
A: Replies from household emails are tracked and tied back to the household, so you can easily see and manage responses within Levitate.
Q: When does Levitate send emails by household?
A: This behavior only applies when:
- The Send to Household option 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 the Send to Household option 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.