There are plenty of people in the world looking to start their own businesses. Some are lucky or smart enough to come up with a truly innovative and original idea that hooks investors while others spend years working in an industry before they decide to branch out on their own. And a surprising number of people inexplicably find the means to start an enterprise despite the fact that they have no knowledge of the industry or experience running a business. In any case, not everyone who becomes an entrepreneur starts with a business degree in hand, and even those who do may not have a strong background in marketing. Plus, business owners that have a better than average understanding of marketing know that the tools and avenues for marketing ventures are changing all the time, necessitating continuing education and engagement with the marketplace to keep up with advances. The ‘Marketing 101: What is Marketing‘ application aims to offer a little something to each of these categories of business owner.

The long and short of this freebie for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is that it provides users with information on a variety of hot topics concerning marketing for a business, along with useful resources that will supplement the lessons imparted. If you’re picturing a boring e-book, you can think again. Each of the five “chapters” offered by this app (including Intro to Marketing, Marketing on a Budget, Online, Live Events, and Social Media) is delivered via video tutorials (39 in total) that have been created by marketing specialists. So you might expect to watch an informative video about the easiest marketing tools for a small budget and receive an in-depth tutorial from someone who has actually used these tools and realized success in a real-world setting. Or you might learn about the ins and outs of taking your brand into the online arena.

But while the video segments comprise the majority of the content offered through this helpful app, there’s even more to love in the resources section. You’ll not only have access to more written content (created by business experts), but you’ll also get templates to help you create important business documents (like a marketing plan and budget) as well as already-written legal documents provided for the program by lawyers. And the application includes a feature that allows you to email and print any documents posted. In short, it’s a great resource for anyone interested in learning the basics of modern marketing or stepping up their current efforts.

Even those with a general understanding of marketing practices can’t help but agree than having access to more details on certain topics could be useful. And those that don’t have the first notion about what marketing their business in this day and age entails will no doubt get a lot out of this free app. At the very least it could help users to expand their marketing vision to include areas that they were previously unaware of, and at best it could help an inexperienced entrepreneur turn a fledgling venture into a massive success through proper marketing techniques. If you find even one piece of information in this app to try out it will be worth the time it took to download it.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

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