The average person checks his phone 46 times a day, and depending on age that number could be even higher. But look at it this way: That’s not just 46 times checking email, text messaging, monitoring finances or scrolling social apps. That’s 46 opportunities of mobile marketing to reach customers during an activity they are accustomed to going through each day.

As marketing moves to a mobile marketing focus and expands into more mobile platforms for reaching customers where they spend most of their online time, it’s only natural to innovate the ways and places brands interact with customers. Approximately 11% of Americans access the Internet from only a mobile device, surpassing the amount of people accessing the Web exclusively from a desktop computer. Mobile is king for a reason. And the way marketers reach customers on this platform is ever-expanding. It’s all in looking for every opportunity and turning it into an experience.

Let’s examine the average day of a mobile phone user to discover which places present themselves for perfect mobile marketing moments.

Morning

With 35% of people thinking first of their phones upon waking in the morning, an activity that ranks above coffee (17%) and significant others (10%), mobile marketing can begin as soon as the day does. The people checking their phones first thing are typically looking at emails or social media. This is the time to send them short reminders of your product or service. It’s not likely customers are going to invest a lot of their morning time into reading your content or looking at your site, but it’s wise to give them a small reminder to check in later.

The next place to reach customers is on their daily commute. Both drivers and public transit riders can listen to podcasts about their line of work to learn more about your product, the industry and general trends. Creating a podcast as part of your content marketing strategy takes careful research and dedication, but can be a great way to expand your audience and provide alternative ways of accessing your thought leadership and updates.

Once a person finally reaches the office, the day becomes dominated by quick glances at a mobile device in between work done on a desktop computer. This is where cross-device campaigns are helpful in targeting the same customer on every device she uses. Knowing when and where she accesses your content helps you tailor the format and material to each device, frame of mind and moment in time. Then you can send in-app notifications mid-morning to break up the day if applicable to your marketing model.

Lunch and Mid-Afternoon Slump

Only one in five people step away from the desk to enjoy midday lunch, but that doesn’t mean the other four people are productively working away while consuming a salad. They also need a break, and often find reprieve on their mobile phones. Checking social media, trolling news sites for interesting articles or even browsing an email newsletter are common lunchtime activities that mobile marketing can naturally integrate content into.

Sending your newsletter on the same day around lunchtime every week might act like a Pavlov dog experiment. The mealtime triggers a need to read your email or receiving the newsletter reminds a professional to eat lunch. Either way, they are complementary actions that only benefit from your dedication to consistency.

The afternoon slump is a time when workers get fatigued and just need to take a mental break. The best times to post on social media – 10-11 a.m. on Wednesdays for LinkedIn, if you’re interested – indicate that most professionals are looking for something engaging right around these times. Consider these hours and minutes as your best window to reaching a prospect on a social network while they scroll mindlessly through their phones.

Evening Routine

After work, most people want to get their minds off of the day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach them in subtle ways on their mobile devices. As they hit the gym, look up recipes for dinner and wind down with some TV, mobile devices are still a prevalent feature in these activities. This mobile stickiness allows you to scale down your marketing efforts to understated ads or notifications to engage with an app or content journey.

This is the prime time of day to catch customers when they are thinking more fluidly and openly. The day ends as it began, in bed with a phone in your customer’s hands: 23% of people having fallen asleep with a device in their hand, 3% of whom sleep with it in that position at all times.

The dependency on mobile devices is only increasing, putting marketers in a good position to expand their creative thinking and targeting goals to new platforms, such as in-app advertising, podcasts, native advertising with publishers and social networks, innovative email newsletters, responsive mobile sites and native apps. These are all places a brand can generate a narrative that both communicates a message and reaches audiences where they spend their time.