Remaining current on the ins and outs of international postal reform is no small task. Having a network of professionals to turn to is of great importance. When it comes to what's happening at the United States Postal Service (USPS), if you don't already know him, you would be well advised to introduce yourself to Larry Chaido, president of TransGlobal Consultants Inc.

We thank Larry for recently bringing some very important developments to our attention. Specifically, Larry highlights that the USPS plans to:

• Simplify the current International shipping options for retail customers and commercial customers from eight to four services while maintaining International Priority Airmail (IPA) and International Surface Air Lift (ISAL). In addition there have also been modifications to M- bags, rate groups, discounts as well as standards contained within the international proposal submitted for comment by the USPS on December 20, 2006.
• Global Express Guaranteed pricing is projected to increase an average of 10.1 % and Express Mail International pricing will increase an average of 18.6 %

With growing demand for faster NCOA services for Canada we recently enhanced our Canadian mail processing services to provide National Change of Address (NCOA) services for Canadian addresses as a newly-licensed, non-exclusive Canada Post Mail Service Provider.

Canada Post reports that each year approximately 1.2 million households (i.e., 16- 18% of the Canadian population) file a Change of Address Notification (COAN) form with Canada Post when they move. Captured electronically, this information is made available to Global-Z as licensees of Canada Post's National Change of Address Data (© Canada Post Corporation 2007), for those customers who have provided their consent. The National Change of Address service benefits direct marketers in updating their databases with the new address information for those customers who have changed addresses. Through our licensing agreement with Canada Post, Global-Z provides NCOA services for Canadian resident and business addresses.

by Marty Shaw Global-Z Sales & Web Marketing

Our regular GZ News readers will recognize a search engine marketing-related article as new to our format. Direct marketers spend significant resources navigating this channel and we felt that including some of our own search engine marketing experiences, offering tips, strategies, sharing market buzz and tapping into, and sharing with GZ News readers what you're experiencing will make for information you can apply to the benefit of your business immediately.

Now, I mentioned "navigating this channel", above. That's not the reason I've titled this article "Navigating Panama Root Canal". Read on.

Search Engine Marketing Tip #1: Attend a Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference near you this year. I've been to a few of them and last year's SES in NYC was at an all-time-high attendance (~6,000). It covers basics to advanced subjects and everything in between. SES NYC is one of the longer conferences spanning 4 days (more info, below). Here's just a few stats that were highlighted at last year's SES Conference that underscore why this medium is growing in importance to direct marketers.

Geoff Ramsey, CEO, at eMarketer noted:

• 85% of business executives use search engines when conducting research compared to 70% of consumers.
• 58% consider the Internet to be the Most Important source of information on business, vs. 18% for newspapers and 11% for industry trade pubs.
• 42% of B2B buyers start using search engines anywhere from 2 - 12 months prior to purchase.

by Jennifer Martell
Global-Z Quality Systems Specialist

My name is Jennifer Martell, and I have worked at Global-Z International for almost three years. I am extremely grateful to work for such a great company. I love the work, the people, and the environment. What has really been special to me was the tremendous amount of support (emotional and financial) that I received from the people at Global-Z when I decided to try my hand at medical missions.