Garbage In, Garbage Out: Meg Dalessandro on Video-First Content

Meg Dalessandro is a content producer at Wistia. She came up through graphic design, UX, and video before moving into writing, which means she sees the whole production line: the video, the transcript, and everything you repurpose from it. Her core argument is simple: if you want great content out, you have to put a great video in.

Key Takeaways

Make the video first, then write from the transcript. A strong video is the input that powers posts, blogs, and clips.
More clips isn't more value. As Meg puts it, "if all the clips aren't really saying much, are you really getting more?"
LLM-friendly embeds put your transcript into the embed code so AI can read your video instead of seeing a "black box."
One video can't say everything to everyone. "If your video is saying everything all at once to everyone, it's kind of saying nothing at all."
Put a video expert at the table. The value isn't cinematography. It's someone who sees the full vision and can translate it across every team.

Should you make the video first or write first?

For years, the workflow ran the other way. You wrote a blog post, then turned it into a video. Meg says that's flipped.

"Maybe five, ten years ago he would purposely write a blog post and then use that to then make the video. But now companies and businesses and just our world in general is so much more video first." — Meg Dalessandro

The logic is about leverage. A good video already contains the narrative, the story, and the spoken explanation. The transcript hands all of that to a writer, who can then turn it into social posts, blog posts, and more without starting from scratch. Make the input great and you save your editor and writer enormous time, because the thinking is already done.

Why "more clips" isn't more content

The popular move is to take one long recording and slice it into dozens of clips. Meg doesn't reject that, but she pushes on the assumption behind it.

"I see a lot of people just saying, I'm gonna hook this one hour live stream, and I'm just gonna dice it up into a bajillion clips... yeah, that is good, but if all the clips aren't really saying much, are you really getting more? Is more always better?" — Meg Dalessandro

Her answer is that quality of input decides quality of output. "When you have a really good input, when that video is really, really good, that is how you'll get really great outputs." Volume without substance just multiplies weak content.

What are LLM-friendly video embeds?

This is where Wistia's product work meets AI search. Meg explains that most embedded videos are invisible to AI. If you drop a YouTube embed on your site, an AI crawler mostly sees a link, "a bunch of random letters and words." To the robot, the video "kind of just looks like a black box."

Wistia built a feature called LLM-friendly embeds to fix that.

"It actually adds the transcript of your video into that embed code so that it's giving more information to the AI so it can actually adequately surface it up in different results or categorize it in different ways." — Meg Dalessandro

The transcript is "embedded like hidden, like cloaked" in the code, working in the background. The reason they built it is direct: "we know that the search space is changing and you want to have as much control over it as you possibly can."

Why one video can't do everything

Meg's sharpest point is about focus. Teams are tempted to make one expensive video do every job at once: sales, social, case study, recruiting. She thinks that's how you end up with a video that lands nothing.

"If your video is saying everything all at once to everyone, it's kind of saying nothing at all." — Meg Dalessandro

Her fix is to plan before you shoot. "Lock down what is the goal, who is this going to be, really think through where that video is going to live, and then build out those talk tracks." That up-front work is what makes the difference between a strategic asset and an expensive miss.

Why a video expert belongs at the strategy table

As video becomes everything-first, more non-video people are making video, and the production bar has dropped. Meg sees that as a reason companies need a specific kind of person in the room, not just a camera operator.

"Someone who's almost like that creative Swiss Army knife who can really speak to all those audiences... because you're seeing the full vision. It's not the same as just hiring someone who knows cinematography or someone who knows how to edit." — Meg Dalessandro

She describes her own edge as being "a translator between different teams." Each team has its own KPI and its own ask, and someone has to make sure one or two assets actually serve all of those goals instead of getting shoehorned into a single overloaded video.

Plan first, don't just chase the trend

Asked for one piece of parting advice, Meg landed on investment up front.

"Time spent in the beginning of the process focusing on making that input, that actual video, where it's going to live, what it's going to do, who it's going to speak to, will bring you so much further than just trying to jump on a trend." — Meg Dalessandro

And the warning that names this whole conversation: "I love repurposing stuff, but if what you're repurposing is crap, then you're gonna end up with just a bunch more crap." Planning can feel like friction, but as Meg says, "not all friction is bad. I think it's useful friction."

Frequently Asked Questions

Should you make a video first or write the blog post first?

Meg Dalessandro recommends video-first. A strong video already holds the narrative and the spoken explanation, and the transcript gives a writer everything they need to create posts, blogs, and clips. Make the input great and you save your team time downstream.

Does cutting more clips from a video create more value?

Not on its own. Meg says more clips only help if each clip actually says something. "If all the clips aren't really saying much, are you really getting more?" Quality of input determines quality of output, so a great source video matters more than clip volume.

What are LLM-friendly embeds and why do they matter for AI search?

LLM-friendly embeds add your video's transcript into the embed code, hidden from viewers but readable by AI. Without it, an embedded video looks like a "black box" to AI crawlers. With it, AI can understand and surface the video in search results.

Why shouldn't one video try to do everything?

Because, as Meg puts it, "if your video is saying everything all at once to everyone, it's kind of saying nothing at all." She recommends locking down the goal, audience, and where the video will live before you make it, then building talk tracks for each purpose.

Why do B2B companies need a video expert on strategy, not just production?

The value isn't cinematography or editing. Meg describes the right person as a "creative Swiss Army knife" and a "translator between different teams" who sees the full vision and makes a small set of assets serve many goals across sales, marketing, product, and customer success.

Full Interview Transcript

Dane: Hey everybody, my name is Dane Frederiksen. I am the founder of Digital Accomplice and I'm on a mission to help B2B companies do more with video and grow, be visible, trusted, and build pipeline. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And I'm joined by Meg Dalessandro from Wistia, and she is a content producer. What else do we need to know about you? And welcome to the show.

Meg: Well, thanks for chatting today. We connected on LinkedIn and I just felt like we had so much in common. And I guess the thing about me is that a lot of people are like, what is a content producer? So I went to art school and I actually studied graphic design and user experience design, found myself in startups and things like that, then learned marketing a lot through osmosis, and then found myself in content and marketing, and now I'm at Wistia being a content producer, kind of doing a mix of those things. Much more writing these days than actually designing and making video, but because I had been doing all the designing and making video, I'm now writing to that audience. So it's kind of like writing to people like myself, which I feel like is the one reason I actually really like and am good at this job, because I'm like, if I wouldn't like it, someone else probably wouldn't either.

Dane: Well, this is great that we're talking because this is one of the areas I'm really focused on right now, using video and writing together. Because video has the transcript, so it's a natural fodder for a writer, and I really see it as a force multiplier, because you can do video interviews and get the video and then also have the transcript for the writer, maybe freeing up the writer's time so they don't need to do the interviews in the first place and can spend more time writing. So I think this is part of a smart content plan. And I'm trying to find out what's the right way to do this. You could argue that you should think about the writing first and then the video is an afterthought, or you could do it the other way and just do the video first. Is that the right way to get good writing content from transcripts? I'd love to get your take.

Meg: Yeah, it's honestly like you were almost just listening in on my meeting with my boss twenty minutes ago. Because we were just talking about how maybe five, ten years ago he would purposely write a blog post and then use that to then make the video. But now companies and businesses and just our world in general is so much more video first. And so I feel like there's such great value in really creating that video first and then taking that transcript like you're describing and using that to then create the written follow up material, whether that's social media posts or blog posts or things like that. So when you have a really good input, when that video is really, really good, that is how you'll get really great outputs. I see a lot of people just saying, I'm gonna take this one hour live stream and I'm just gonna dice it up into a bajillion clips, and that's great. But if all the clips aren't really saying much, are you really getting more? Is more always better? So that's why I think having that input at that higher quality is just so much more important. Really spending time on what is that video experience that'll give you the best transcript, and then it saves your editor, your writer so much more time because you've already put so much thought into what is that narrative, what is that thing we're trying to teach, and bring people through that story.

Dane: Right. I want to talk a little bit about Wistia. You already mentioned your boss and your plans. I don't want you to give away too many secrets, but I've been watching Wistia for a long time. They've been around for a while, and I've been around for a while too. I've got 30 years of video experience. So I've kind of come along with Wistia hand in hand for the past 10 years at least. I think you're one of the companies that's really leaning into this AI search and video ecosystem. What is the right way to be doing video optimized for AI search, and how does that factor into your other plans, like SEO? I'd love to hear more about what you're doing now, what's working, and where you're headed, because I don't know that I've seen anybody do AI video quite perfectly yet. I think we're all learning.

Meg: Yeah, and I think that's one thing: we are learning too. So we're trying to learn as much as we can and then share as we're learning what works and what doesn't. And one thing I'll say is that you mentioned Wistia's been around for a really long time. Actually this week is Wistia's 20th birthday. So we're all getting together next week for our company offsite to have a big birthday celebration, which will be really fun. If you think about where marketing or where video was 20 years ago, so much has changed, specifically even just in the last couple years with search and how people are finding video. We have a feature specifically that we built, the product team, called LLM-friendly embeds. And what that does is it puts the transcript of your video into the code of your embeds. So when an AI agent or AI anything is really looking through your site, it can get more information about your video. If you embed, say, a YouTube video or some other type of video on your site, it kind of just looks like a black box to that robot. It's not really getting any information from it. But with that extra information from the transcript and the type of embeds that we do, we purposely built that because we know that the search space is changing and you want to have as much control over it as you possibly can. So that's one way that we're trying to figure out how to make search and video play nice together.

Dane: Hey, I'm really sorry, someone's ringing my doorbell. Can we just pause for thirty seconds? All right, I'm gonna keep it rolling. The delivery guy was not taking no for an answer, sorry. So because they were ringing the doorbell, I have to confess I zoned out a little bit. Let me just ask this very short, specific question. Does video help companies show up in AI search?

Meg: Yes, I think it really depends on how you're using video though. It depends on the type of embeds that you're using. If you're putting a video on your website, you could use a classic embed code. Say I take something from YouTube and put it into my website. The robot or the AI is really just seeing that as a black box, because all it can read is the link text, and usually your link text is a bunch of random letters and words. Whereas a feature at Wistia we have is called LLM-friendly embeds, and what that does is it actually adds the transcript of your video into that embed code so that it's giving more information to the AI, so it can actually adequately surface it up in different results or categorize it in different ways that'll actually get your video seen on those platforms. So that's one way that we're at least trying to make AI and video play nice in terms of the search landscape.

Dane: Interesting. So the transcript goes into the embed. Does that mean it's embedded visibly, or is it just sort of cloaked, hiding in the embed code?

Meg: Good question. So it is embedded hidden, like cloaked. We have other embeds where if you wanted to include the transcript below in a see-more kind of thing, you can do that too. But for the most part it's just in the background, doing all the search work for you.

Dane: Very interesting. So Wistia is a video platform. How are you handling YouTube, if at all? Are they your mortal enemy? Are they a collaboration partner? How do you fit together with YouTube? Because I imagine there's got to be a way, because they're the big dog.

Meg: Yeah, totally. That was actually one of my first questions in my interview process: are we frenemies with YouTube, or what's the deal? The broader feeling about YouTube at Wistia is that it's very much a social channel. If you think about what makes a social channel versus a channel you own: social channels like LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, they're all trying to keep you on that platform. They're trying to link you back to watch more YouTube videos on YouTube. They're not really surfacing up links back to your website. If you're embedding a YouTube video on your website, you don't really get to fully control what shows up after it. You could be watching a beautiful brand video and then all of a sudden it's a Mr. Beast video after it. So it doesn't give you that control.

Dane: Right. So that begs the question: how should B2B companies use YouTube?

Meg: I think just as you would use any other social media channel. If I'm looking at LinkedIn or YouTube, there are definitely different formats that work for each. If I look at the type of YouTube that I like to watch, I primarily watch YouTube like cable, that's kind of my main source of content even on my TV. I look at deep dive videos that are twenty or fifteen minutes. But then I also watch shorts if I'm on my phone, kind of like a TikTok short form style video. Then if I'm on LinkedIn, I might watch a five-minute video, maybe 10 or 15 if I'm really interested. But I've seen a lot more short form videos popping up in my feed on LinkedIn. So it's very much about trying out different formats as well as different thumbnail styles and figuring out what kind of internet hangout space you're trying to occupy. Are you hanging out with the deep dive folks? Are you hanging out with the podcasters? What metaphorical high school lunch table are you sitting at? That's how I'd look at it for YouTube or any other social channel.

Dane: That's good insight. I'm curious about your thoughts on a video-first content strategy that touches the entire organization. Because video, like text or images, can be used for just about anything in a company: recruitment, products, how-to, thought leadership. It really needs adoption from the top, and it needs a plan. It needs to be consistent and repeatable. You can't just do one and done anymore. This speaks to this idea of a B2B company being like a news department or a media company. And if you're going to have a function like that, you need people like us, video experts, at the table making the business and strategy decisions. Because if the people in management are traditional content marketers with a writing focus, or executives without hands-on video experience, how are they going to come up with a strategy that takes advantage of everything video can do and avoids the rookie mistakes? I'm curious what your experience has been getting a seat at that table.

Meg: Yeah, this is really interesting to me because one trend we're starting to see as everything becomes more video-first is that there are a lot of non-video folks making video. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think it's going to happen, more and more people want to make video. We see things like TikTok where high production stuff isn't necessarily as important as it used to be. Some people could be making a remote video over Zoom or Riverside or Wistia or anything. And the reason someone like yourself or myself, someone who's almost like that creative Swiss Army knife who can really speak to all those audiences, who can speak to a sales team, a video team, executives, gets a place at that table is because you're seeing the full vision. It's not the same as just hiring someone who knows cinematography or someone who knows how to edit. It's someone who can see that full picture and how you can make one or two or three assets and actually make that leverageable throughout all those pillars of a business. Sometimes it does feel like it's either this video or nothing. But the best thing you can do is be multifaceted and be able to speak all those different languages. That's what's really benefited me in my career, being able to be like a translator between different teams. Because each team has its own goals and its own KPI. I need a video for this, I need a case study, I need a social video. And not every video can do all of that. They need someone to say we're not gonna shoehorn this video into being all those things, because if your video is saying everything all at once to everyone, it's kind of saying nothing at all. So it's really important to lock down what is the goal, who is this going to be, really think through where that video is going to live, and then build out those talk tracks and those assets so you're actually speaking to those audiences and those goals, and you're not trying to get more bang for your buck just by one super expensive video shoot to rule them all.

Dane: Yeah, it's like the Cheesecake Factory menu. It's pancakes and tacos, like what kind of place is this? So this is a big problem. I would push back on one thing. You said maybe the brand cinematography videos aren't as important as they used to be. I would just say there's a space for all of it. You still need all those things. Most people still think of video in the B2B world as expensive, hard, the big thing. But now there's been a revolution where we have this whole other lane of social media, webcams, iPhones. So there is a place for all of it, but the same point applies: you still need someone like us to help guide which one's appropriate for which business case. If you need to do it today, you're probably not doing a cinematic. But if it needs to impress people, it's probably not a webcam.

Meg: Yeah, and I mean if all you're making, if you totally threw out all of the really high performing, high production, thoughtful, cinematic videos and product videos and explainers for just memes, sure you might get a chuckle here and there, but what are people really remembering about your brand, your thoughts, your mission, what you actually do? It's one thing to be relevant, but you also need to make sure that what you have has sustenance and that you're actually differentiating. That's where I think those videos matter. You might have a catchy hook on social media with some meme or funny short form video, and then they want to spend more time with you. Once people want to opt in to spend more time with you, that's where you can do those beautiful case study videos or product walkthroughs where it feels like people are there to spend more time and intention with you. Five, ten years ago, all there was was just one really high production video, and that was used for sales, customer success, social. You can still use a video across all those channels, but like you said, there's also a whole new playing field of different types of video. So I totally agree, I don't think we should all devolve to memes, because I think we'd all lose our minds. But there's definitely a place and time for all of it.

Dane: Agreed. So we're basically the same mind, just with two mouths here. As we wrap up, do you have a piece of advice for B2B marketers and B2B companies trying to do more with video? What's the one thing they need to know that we could leave them with?

Meg: I kind of said this at the beginning, but I really, really think time spent in the beginning of the process focusing on making that input, that actual video, where it's going to live, what it's going to do, who it's going to speak to, will bring you so much further than just trying to jump on a trend and say, I saw this on Instagram, let's do it. Sometimes that's fun and funny to jump on the bandwagon, but that's not necessarily going to be the thing that makes someone choose your brand or choose you. When you really bring in the other experts and bring more people to the table, you can have everyone bringing their piece, speaking all these different languages and connecting on, when I talk to customers I see this, or when I'm on this platform this is what I'm seeing. Because we can't be everywhere all at once, even if we'd like to be. So bringing more people into that process and really trying to make that beginning piece great, because I love repurposing stuff, but if what you're repurposing is crap, then you're gonna end up with just a bunch more crap. So why would you do that? Investing up front is probably going to save people a lot more time than they think, because people don't want to spend more time, they want to fly through things. And I think that's where your humanness and your brand and your brain power are really the most beneficial.

Dane: Yeah, this is exactly where my head is at too. To say it another way: you need a plan, a blueprint, a strategy, some upfront thinking and planning for where this thing is going to go, who we're talking to, what business goal it needs to accomplish, how we're going to measure that, and who's going to measure it. A plan. Imagine that, a plan. This is exactly what I help B2B marketers with. So if anybody watching needs help with that, I have a service where we basically do exactly what you just said: we plan it all out, what we're trying to accomplish, and then we bring it to market. It's really not that complicated, even though it's complicated.

Meg: And it might seem like friction, but not all friction is bad. I think it's useful friction. Yes, it's traction. Exactly. I think that's perfectly put.

Dane: Traction. Thank you. Well this has been a great conversation. Thanks again, and it's been great getting to know you.

Meg: Yeah, you too. Thanks for having me.

Dane: Fantastic.

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Dane Frederiksen CEO / Creative Producer www.digitalaccomplice.com · dane@digitalaccomplice.com