BackgroundIn recent years, much effort has been invested all over the world in nurse recruitment and retention. Issues arising in this context are low job satisfaction, the poor public image of nursing and the reluctance of nurses to promote or market their profession.AimThis study aimed to examine factors explaining the marketing of the nursing profession by nurses working at a general tertiary medical centre in Israel.MethodOne hundred sixty‐nine registered nurses and midwives from five clinical care units completed a structured self‐administered questionnaire, measuring (a) professional self‐image, (b) job satisfaction, (c) nursing promotional and marketing activity questionnaire, and (d) demographic data.ResultsThe mean scores for the promotion of nursing were low. Nurses working in an intensive cardiac care unit demonstrated higher levels of promotional behaviour than nurses from other nursing wards in our study. Nurse managers reported higher levels of nursing promotion activity compared with first‐line staff nurses. There was a strong significant correlation between job satisfaction and marketing behaviour. Multiple regression analysis shows that 15% of the variance of promoting the nursing profession was explained by job satisfaction and job position.ConclusionNurses are not inclined to promote or market their profession to the public or to other professions. The policy on the marketing of nursing is inadequate.Implications for nursing or health policyA three‐level (individual, organizational and national) nursing marketing programme is proposed for implementation by nurse leadership and policy makers. Among proposed steps to improve marketing of the nursing profession are promotion of the image of nursing by the individual nurse in the course of her or his daily activities, formulation and implementation of policies and programmes to promote the image of nursing at the organizational level and drawing up of a long‐term programme for promoting or marketing the professional status of nursing at the national level.