Deep Dive: WordPress and DailyStory marketing automation integration

When we set out to launch DailyStory's website, WordPress was the natural choice. And we wanted to build an integration between DailyStory and WordPress that made it easy for any WordPress website to leverage DailyStory's marketing automation features directly.

WordPress remains the dominant content management system on the internet, and by a wide margin. WordPress powers approximately 41.9 to 43% of all websites globally as of 2026, giving it a 59 to 62% share of the CMS market, more than all other platforms combined. That means more than half a billion active websites run on WordPress, from personal blogs to Fortune 500 company sites. It was a natural home base for DailyStory, and building a deep integration between the two was a priority from day one.

DailyStory is a marketing automation platform. Many of its features integrate directly into your website, including tracking a customer's journey through a conversion funnel, capturing leads through popups and forms, and triggering automated workflows the moment a visitor takes an action.

This process starts with either manually adding contacts into DailyStory, adding new lead capture features like popups, or integrating with existing website forms to capture contact information. The WordPress integration makes all of this straightforward, whether you are building a new site or adding automation to an existing one.

Make it simple

DailyStory has the ability to create landing pages. We took an approach that will be familiar to WordPress users: you can create templates, create pages, and use templates to control the common look and feel across pages. You can also create web forms and embed them in any page or template.

But we did not want DailyStory landing pages to be the only option. We also wanted to make it easy for WordPress sites to use DailyStory forms and content natively, within their existing WordPress environment, without requiring any custom development work.

Running a DailyStory form in WordPress is simple once the plugin is installed. All you need is to use a WordPress shortcode in your content. That is the entire integration from the WordPress side.

Enter the WordPress plugin for DailyStory

Here is a walkthrough of how to add a DailyStory web form to a WordPress site. The example below is how we added the Contact Us form on the DailyStory website.

The first step is to create a form in DailyStory.

Building a web form in DailyStory is easy. Just drag and drop the form elements onto the canvas. Set labels and assign the fields, such as "Your name," to the corresponding lead field in DailyStory.

A few additional details worth knowing:

• Web forms are progressive. If someone has already completed a field previously, such as company name, DailyStory does not ask for the same information twice. This reduces friction for returning visitors and improves completion rates.
• Support for Google reCAPTCHA. If Google reCAPTCHA integration is enabled in DailyStory, reCAPTCHA is available for all web forms. Adding reCAPTCHA is important for preventing bot submissions, which protects your contact database and your email deliverability.

Note the Web Form ID after building your form. You will need it in the next step, along with your DailyStory Site ID, to embed the form in WordPress.

Install the WordPress plugin

Open WordPress, go to the admin dashboard and select Plugins. Search for the DailyStory plugin (hosted on wordpress.org) and install and configure it.

Full directions on installing and configuring the plugin can be found here. We have also published the source code on GitHub for anyone who wants to see how the plugin is built or contribute to it.

Once the WordPress plugin is installed, you can create a new post or page and format it however you want. DailyStory uses Bootstrap for layout control on its own site, but you can use any CSS framework or custom styling in your WordPress theme to control the appearance of embedded forms.

Next, wherever you want the contact form to appear, add the following WordPress shortcode using the Web Form ID from DailyStory:

[ds-webform id="83j47"]

When the page is published and viewed, the form appears within the WordPress post or page exactly where you placed the shortcode. (See it live on the DailyStory site.)

The advantage of this approach is that any changes to the form, including field additions, layout changes, or new automation workflows, are managed entirely within DailyStory. You do not need to touch your WordPress code to update the form. You can also run A/B test variations of the form and manage everything from the DailyStory dashboard. CSS within WordPress still controls the visual styling if you want to match the form to your theme.

That is how DailyStory's own website forms are built. When someone completes a form, it captures their contact information, redirects to a thank-you page, and immediately starts an automation workflow associated with the campaign.

The workflow can be as simple or as sophisticated as you need. In DailyStory's own case, completing the Contact Us form triggers a workflow that:

• Sends an auto-response confirmation email to the contact (which also checks whether the email address bounces, protecting sender reputation).
• Posts an update to the internal sales channel in Slack, so the team is notified immediately.
• Sends an email notification to the sales team with the contact details so they can follow up promptly.
• For newsletter signups specifically, verifies the email address and adds the subscriber to the appropriate list in DailyStory.

All of this happens automatically, the moment the form is submitted, without any manual effort. For more on what automation workflows can do once a lead is captured, see our guides on 17 types of automated emails you can start using today, how to build a welcome email series, and mastering the art of drip email campaigns.

More than forms: what else the WordPress integration enables

The DailyStory WordPress plugin does more than embed web forms. Once installed, it also enables:

• Lead capture popups. DailyStory's exit-intent and welcome mat popups are activated through the plugin, turning your WordPress site's existing traffic into captured leads without any additional code.
• Visitor tracking. The plugin installs DailyStory's beacon, a small piece of JavaScript that tracks known contacts' activity on your WordPress site. This lets you see exactly which pages a lead has visited, trigger automations based on page visits, and get alerts when high-value contacts are actively browsing.
• Magic forms. DailyStory's Magic Form feature connects existing forms already on your WordPress site to DailyStory, without rebuilding them. If you already have a contact form or a newsletter signup built with another plugin, Magic Forms can pass submissions directly into DailyStory and trigger workflows from them.
• Landing pages. DailyStory landing pages can be used alongside or instead of WordPress pages for specific campaigns, giving you a purpose-built conversion environment with built-in A/B testing, analytics, and form integration. See our guide on landing page benefits for your small business.

Getting started

If you are running a WordPress site and want to connect it to DailyStory's marketing automation platform, the process is straightforward. Install the plugin, configure your Site ID, build your first form, drop in a shortcode, and your first automated workflow is live.

For full setup documentation, visit the DailyStory WordPress integration page or the DailyStory documentation. You can also browse the plugin directly in the WordPress.org plugin directory.

For more on what is possible once your WordPress site and DailyStory are connected, see our guides on 12 strategies to capture more email leads, how a sales funnel works, and why email automation matters to your marketing.

Schedule a free DailyStory demo to see the full platform in action, including the WordPress integration, lead capture tools, and marketing automation workflows.