---
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id: 3841707f5332b23841e587b8fa65fd70f073effb8d99b4eb43640618d396690b
title: Managing Contacts in a Journey Builder Email Activity
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/mc_jb_managing_contacts.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_jb_managing_contacts.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
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content_type: documentation
content_hash: bd88128b4f6dc6f142e3da419094cd77f01ca08168c142876ff4e01c4be89f98
description: To manage contacts in a Journey Builder email activity, use Marketing Cloud Engagement advanced sending options.
products:
  - Marketing
  - Marketing Cloud Engagement
release: "264"
---
# Managing Contacts in a Journey Builder Email Activity

To manage contacts in a Journey Builder email activity, use Marketing Cloud Engagement advanced sending options.

Publication lists allow email contacts to opt into and out of a single communication, without opting out of all communications at once. Before sending an email, Journey Builder checks publication lists associated with the email to see if a contact is subscribed. If subscribed, Journey Builder sends the message to that contact. If the contact is unsubscribed or received emails that bounced too many times, Journey Builder doesn’t send the email.

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-mktg-mc_journeys_and_automations-264-0-0-production-enus/e08cdd71-c1c1-4ae5-a5e9-8a6dad583ad4/images/icon_note.png)

Note Publication list is a required field. If no publication list is selected, the email activity uses the All Subscribers list. When the message’s CAN-SPAM classification is transactional, Journey Builder sends an email regardless of subscription status.

Domain exclusions exclude a single domain’s email addresses from a Journey Builder send. For example, use domain exclusions when a list Journey Builder sends to include employee email addresses from a competitor’s company. By adding the domain in this field, all email addresses with this domain are excluded from the send, ensuring competitors don’t receive the email.

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-mktg-mc_journeys_and_automations-264-0-0-production-enus/e08cdd71-c1c1-4ae5-a5e9-8a6dad583ad4/images/icon_note.png)

Note If your account has subscriber key enabled, the system excludes recipients using the subscriber key value. If your account doesn’t have a subscriber key enabled, the system excludes recipients using email address.

#### See Also

- [Configure the Email Activity](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_jb_configure_the_send_email_activity.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use an email activity to power Journey Builder email sends to Marketing Cloud Engagement contacts in a journey.")