How to run a webinar in India: a practical checklist

This is the order of operations for a webinar that fills, runs and converts. It assumes an Indian audience, an IST clock and a host who is also the person doing most of the work.

Two weeks out: decide what it is

Write one sentence: who it is for, and what they leave with. If you cannot write it, the webinar is not ready to promote.

Then pick the slot. For working professionals in India, weekday evenings after 8 PM and Sunday mornings are the slots worth testing first. Run the same session in two slots before concluding anything about your audience.

Ten days out: the registration page

One promise, the date and time in IST, what they will learn in four to six lines, who is teaching, and a form asking for name, email and phone. Nothing else. The long version is in what belongs on a webinar registration page.

Check it on your own phone before you share it anywhere.

Nine days out: set the reminders up once

Build the sequence now, not the night before:

• Confirmation on registration, by email and WhatsApp
• A reminder 24 hours before
• A reminder 1 hour before
• A "we are live" message at the start
• The replay a few hours after

The detail, including the template rules, is in WhatsApp reminders for webinars.

The week before: promote

Promote to the people who already know you first — your list, your WhatsApp groups, your existing customers. Paid traffic to a page that has never converted an organic registrant is money spent learning something you could have learned for free.

The day before: the tech check

Do this at the same time of day as the webinar, from the same place, on the same connection.

• Camera, microphone and the speaker you will actually use
• Share the exact window you plan to share, and check the text is readable at a small size
• Check your upload speed where you will be sitting, not where the router is
• Open the host link and the attendee link side by side, so you know what they see
• If you have panelists, get them in for five minutes and let them test their own setup

Have a backup: a phone with mobile data, charged, logged in as host.

On the day: thirty minutes before

• Join early and leave yourself in the practice session, so you are in the room before the doors open
• Close every notification: email, WhatsApp desktop, calendar
• Water within reach, door shut, phone on silent but visible for the backup
• Have the answers to the three questions you know will come, written down

During: the run of show

• First two minutes: say what they will leave with, and ask one question in chat so the room becomes a room.
• Middle: teach. One idea per section, and a pause after each for questions.
• Last ten minutes: the offer, if you have one, then Q&A. Not the other way around — people leave once Q&A starts.
• Keep an eye on the attendee count. If it falls off a cliff at a particular moment, that moment is the problem, and the report will show you exactly where it was.

Within three hours: the follow-up

• Replay link to everyone who registered
• A different message to attendees than to no-shows
• The resources you promised, actually attached
• The next date, if you have one

The week after: read the report

Four numbers, in this order:

1. Show-up rate — did the reminders work?
2. Drop-off curve — where did the room thin out?
3. Watch time — did people stay for the part that matters?
4. What happened after — replies, bookings, purchases.

Change one thing, run it again, compare. That is the whole method.

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Free: the show-up checklist is this checklist as a one-page PDF you can keep open on the day.