Diwali 2026 lands on Sunday 8 November. Dhanteras is Friday 6 November. That gives you about ten days from today to build a Diwali WhatsApp marketing run that doesn’t annoy people.
The usual mistake is one giant blast on the morning of Dhanteras, to the whole list, with the same text for everyone. It costs the most and converts the least. Here’s the version I’d run.
The calendars I read agree on Dhanteras, Diwali and the order of the days. They split on the last two.
| Day | Date | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Fri | 6 Nov 2026 | Dhanteras (one outlier says 7 Nov) |
| Sat | 7 Nov 2026 | Choti Diwali (some sources say 8 Nov) |
| Sun | 8 Nov 2026 | Diwali, Lakshmi Puja |
| Mon | 9 Nov 2026 | Govardhan Puja, around this date (some say 10 Nov) |
| Tue | 10 Nov 2026 | Bhai Dooj, around this date (some say 11 Nov) |
Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj dates differ by source and by city. If your customers care about the exact day, check a regional panchang before you schedule that message. For a general offer, “around Bhai Dooj” is safer than one date.
Don’t send everyone everything. Split your list into three groups before you touch a template.
If you sell in several cities, add a location split. A pincode filter lets you send a Pune store promotion only to people near Pune. In WaMark you can filter contacts by state, area or pincode and save them as groups.
Take a store with 4,000 opted-in contacts: 2,500 recent buyers, 1,500 lapsed. The lazy plan sends 3 marketing messages to all 4,000.
The split plan saves ₹2,589.30. With 18% GST on the split plan (₹1,398.22) the Meta bill is ₹9,166.12. Order updates are extra: 600 utility templates at ₹0.115 add ₹69.00. Rates are Meta’s India list prices; check your WhatsApp Manager rate card, and see the October 2026 price breakdown for the full set of rates.
Get your Diwali list ready this week
Import contacts, split by area, schedule template campaigns. Plans from ₹999 a month plus 18% GST.
Start with WaMarkSee pricingTemplate approval usually takes minutes to a day or two, so submit all of them by 30 October.
That’s eight sends across ten days, and each person gets two or three of them. Drip sequences help here: you set follow-ups minutes, hours or days apart, and they stop if the person unsubscribes.
Every offer is a marketing template. If you try to pass a discount off as a utility message, Meta re-categorises or rejects it. Order confirmations, payment receipts and delivery updates are utility.
Two other rules from rejections we’ve seen. A variable at the very start or the very end of the body gets rejected. And too many variables for the text length gets rejected too, so keep one or two and give them surrounding words.
Everyone gets the same offer. A customer who bought a ₹4,000 gift set last Diwali doesn’t need the same 10% coupon as a first-timer. Give past buyers early access or a gift. Keep the plain discount for lapsed contacts.
Templates submitted late. Approval is usually quick, but a rejection on 5 November leaves you one day to rewrite. Submit by 30 October and keep a backup version of the main offer without any variable at its start or end.
No one is awake to reply. A Dhanteras offer will bring questions within minutes. When a customer answers your template, the 24-hour window opens, and you can reply with ordinary free-form text. Put someone on the inbox for Friday and Sunday, or let an AI agent answer from your product list and hand over to a person on request. Free-form replies cost nothing up to 1,000 a month per number, then about ₹0.115 each.
Forgetting the second half. Many shops stop at Diwali. Orders keep coming through Bhai Dooj, and returns and exchange questions come after. The thank-you on 9 November is the cheapest message in the plan, and it gives you a reason to ask for a review.
Pull three numbers per template: delivered, read and replied. Then add orders, if you can match them to the campaign.
A quick benchmark for yourself: take the Meta cost of the Dhanteras send and divide by the orders it brought. In the 4,000-contact example, the Dhanteras send to 2,500 buyers costs 2,500 × ₹0.8631 = ₹2,157.75 before GST. If it brings 60 orders, that’s about ₹36 per order. If it brings 6, that’s ₹360 and you should rethink the offer.
Write down what worked while it’s fresh. Black Friday is on 27 November, and you’ll want the same data again.
Names and shop details here are placeholders. Write your own offer.
1. Teaser:
Hi Asha, our Diwali range lands this week. Reply YES and you’ll see it before anyone else, plus a free gift pack on your first order.
2. Early access:
Thanks Asha. Your early access is open till Thursday night: 15% off on the Diwali collection. Tap the button to browse.
3. Dhanteras:
Happy Dhanteras, Asha. Today only: coins, lamps and gift boxes with free delivery in your city. Orders placed before 6 pm ship tomorrow.
4. Diwali greeting:
Wishing you and your family a bright Diwali, Asha. Here is 10% off for the next two days as our thank-you. Valid till Bhai Dooj.
5. Thank-you and feedback:
Thank you for shopping with us this Diwali, Asha. How did we do? Reply with a number from 1 to 5.
6. Bhai Dooj nudge:
Still looking for a gift for your brother or sister, Asha? These 5 ideas ship in 2 days. Reply STOP if you’d like no more festive messages.
Message 6 includes the opt-out line on purpose. Our guide to WhatsApp marketing examples and templates has more wording to borrow.
I haven’t got a study to quote on the best hour. My own rule: mid-morning (10 to 12) for offers, because people are at work and checking phones, and early evening (6 to 8) for greetings, after puja time starts to settle. On Diwali evening itself, hold back. People are with family.
Opt-out matters more at festivals, because volume is higher. The WhatsApp Business messaging policy says businesses need opt-in permission before contacting people and must respect requests to opt out, on or off WhatsApp (see the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy). In WaMark, anyone who replies STOP is left out of the next campaign. Check the unsubscribed count after each send and clean it from your list.
Also watch blocks. Heavy blocking can hurt your number’s quality rating. If a message gets noticeably more blocks than the others, kill its follow-up.
After Diwali, look at delivery, read and reply by template in the analytics. Keep the winners for Black Friday on 27 November. Our WhatsApp marketing campaign guide and the Click-to-WhatsApp ads page cover next steps, including ads that start chats you can answer for free in the entry window.
Start about 10 days before Diwali on Sunday 8 November 2026, so around 1 November. Submit your templates by 30 October because approval can take from minutes to a couple of days. Send the main offer on Dhanteras, Friday 6 November, and a greeting on Diwali itself.
A greeting using the customer’s name, one offer, an end date and a single button or reply action. Keep it short and add an opt-out line on later messages. Offers must go as marketing templates, which cost about ₹0.8631 each in India before GST.
Meta charges about ₹0.8631 per delivered marketing template in India before 18% GST. Sending 9,000 messages costs about ₹7,768 before GST, or ₹9,166 with it. Check your own rate card, because providers quote slightly different figures.
Only to people who agreed to hear from you. WhatsApp’s policy needs opt-in permission and a way to opt out. Customers who reply STOP must be left out. Sending to bought or scraped lists risks blocks and a lower quality rating.
Dhanteras, Friday 6 November 2026, is the traditional day to buy gold, utensils and gifts, so send the offer that morning. I’d keep Diwali evening for greetings only. I don’t have data on exact hours, so test two send times on small groups first.
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