Give users more control over how you email them. Let them specify what type of email they get and how often they get it.

Is this the psychographic profile for a Ferrari customer: An experienced, savvy power user who knows what he or she wants and wants even more control. Not quite.

According to the results of a recent consumer survey done in partnership with market researcher Ipsos and the Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC), that thumbnail describes today's average American email user. 

Surveying a random sample of 2,252 internet users from top U.S. ISPs including AOL, Yahoo!, MSN/Hotmail, Gmail, Lycos, Excite, Netscape and CompuServe, the ESPC wanted to gauge consumer behavior, attitudes and desires regarding spam, unsubscribe and emerging anti-spam technologies.

What they found, in a nutshell, was that most email users take advantage of available tools like "unsubscribe" and "report fraud" but are looking for even more controls and features, ideally standardized in the email interface and across email systems. They want to really fine tune their inbound email flow and be very clear about what is and is not real.

Given the results of this survey, what can email marketers do now to give their customers more consistency and clarity regarding the legitimacy of their email?

1. Pilot CertifiedEmail Now
Consumers are looking for email they can trust, and they want ISPs and senders to figure this out and tell them. Fortunately, CertifiedEmail, a trusted class of email now available at AOL and Yahoo, enables qualifying senders to have their email delivered by ISPs with a special blue ribbon icon that verifies message and sender legitimacy. CertifiedEmail is even available on a free trial basis so senders can find out what their own ROI is. ROIs in the 300 percent range and up are common because consumers trust the email. A side benefit is that because your email is trusted -- sent from a known, verified sender -- ISPs automatically deliver 100 percent of your messages and render them with links and images intact.

2. Use A Dedicated IP
Having a dedicated IP lets you establish a sending reputation. When consumers complain about your message as spam -- and someone always complains, somewhere, if your list is of any size -- these complaints are logged by ISPs, which keep a record of your complaint rate. These complaint rates determine your email reputation. If you have too high a complaint rate then you are considered for all intents and purposes a spammer. That is, you send too much unwanted email. Keep a dedicated IP address so that ISPs can track your complaint rate. Without a dedicated IP address you can't even be tracked and will be assumed to be like the proverbial credit card newbie who has no record. In other words, you're a high risk.

3. Use The Same "From" Address
While some email marketers like to change the "From" address for each different type of mailing -- for example, one "From" address for the March newsletter mailing, another for the April special offer -- this is confusing to users. You should use a single, consistent "From" address at all times that maps to your company name and domain. When a user subscribes to the email list for Joe's Gifts but then gets email with a "From" address of SpecialPresents, he or she may not recognize your email. Or even worse, they might assume you are not the sender they subscribed to, or, possibly, a different sender trying to spoof your email.

4. Be Proactive About Telling Your Customers What To Expect
State your mailing policies up front. Let consumers know you are using CertifiedEmail, if you plan to. Run an education campaign telling them "here's how to confirm a legitimate email: Look for the blue ribbon envelope icon."

Even better: Give users more control over how you email them. The best marketers today let users not only specify control over what type of email they get, but also how often they get them. If you think about it, all this only makes your relationship with the customer more customized and more special to him or her. You run complex analytics telling you when to mail exactly what to whom, is it surprising that your customers want some degree of control about the same thing?

5. Survey Your Customers
Ask them questions. Find out what they're looking for. Surveys show that customers like surveys. Now, before you joke about no one wanting to tell a survey they don't like surveys, consider what surveys do: Aside from gaining more information about your customers' mailing preferences, habits and desires, they telegraph the message to your customer that you care about their opinion. The most successful brand marketers and direct marketers alike both know that the key to success is engagement, getting your customer interested in the story of your brand or the allure of your offer. Surveys make them feel a part of all this.

David Atlas is vice president of marketing for Goodmail Systems. Read full bio.