Category: Predictive Analytics
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You Ask, I Answer: What Predictive Models Do You Work With?
Ben asks, “Predictive analytics seems like a big topic – what kinds do you work with most or find work best?” Prediction falls into two general buckets, scoring and forecasting. Scoring builds a model to understand, as best as possible, why something happened The most common model is multiple linear regression, which is literally ancient…
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You Ask, I Answer: Basic Prediction
Christopher asked, “Christopher! Went to the SMMW this past year and attended your presentation. One of the most impactful and motivating talks I have seen. I am extremely amateur in my domain expertise in coding- signed up for a python course via codecademy for my personal growth. In my professional role I am pulling the…
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The AI-Powered SEO Process: Predict
Search engine optimization, or SEO, has changed significantly in the past few years. Thanks to the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the only way to build a sustainable, long-term SEO strategy is to create content people want to share. To combat these new trends, we need to employ our own machine learning technology…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Plan
In the last post, we examined the output of an S-ARIMA-based prediction. Let’s now dig into the most important part of predictive analytics: planning and acting. The Power of Predictive Analytics The power of predictive analytics is our ability to forecast with greater accuracy and specificity than generalized, “gut instinct” predictions. We know when something…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Predicting
In the last post, we examined different methods for identifying which variable to predict. Once we’ve made a sound, data-driven assessment of what variables matter most to us, we build a predictive model around it. Predicting Ahead To create accurate forecasts, we must use software built for the explicit purpose of time-series prediction. The generally-accepted…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Picking Variables
In the last post, we examined different ways to prepare data to counteract known, common problems. Let’s turn our eye towards picking which data to predict. Picking Variables Picking a variable to predict is a blend of both human insight and machine analysis. The best comparison I know is that of a GPS app. We…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Preparing Data
In the last post, we examined the basics of extracting data from various data stores and the different types of datasets we have access to. Let’s now look at the process of preparing data. Three Data Challenges In the preparation of our data, we typically face three challenges: Missing data Corrupted data Irrelevant data To…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Pulling Data
In the last post, we looked at the consequences of having poor process in our predictive analytics practice. Let’s look at the first step of that process now. Pull If data is the new oil, pulling data is analogous to drilling and extracting oil from the ground. We need to identify what data sources we…
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The Predictive Analytics Process: Introduction
The Predictive Analytics Process: Introduction While we understand the value of predictive analytics, the ability to see into the future with specificity and precision, we are often unclear on the process to develop predictions. As a result, our predictive analytics outputs are often incomplete, lacking context, or difficult to understand. Introduction: Where Predictive Analytics Goes…
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Predictive Analytics and Email Marketing
While we tend to think of the web and social media as the most data-rich digital marketing channels to apply predictive analytics to, every channel, every discipline, every strategy benefits from predictive analytics. Consider the workhorse of digital marketing, email marketing. Email marketing has long held the crown of maximum ROI, with figures such as…