Realizing your marketing influence, Part 3: professional certification as a marketing tool.

This is the last in a series of articles guiding nursing administrators from broad marketing strategy to tactics and specific applications. The first article laid the foundation for developing a market-driven strategic plan. The second focused on marketing from the inside out. This final article explores the benefits of specialty nurse certification as a strategy for nursing administrators to retain and recruit the most qualified nurses and to differentiate their services from those of competitors. The article includes findings from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' proprietary research, suggestions on how to support certification, and a case study of one hospital's experience in conducting a CCRN certification drive as part of their critical care nurse competency program.