This post is the fifth installment of our “Review, Benchmark, and Improve Practice Revenue” series, where we dive into how to diversify your revenue, lower operating costs, optimize billing procedures, and outshine your competitors.

You've probably heard that growing your practice requires a bigger budget for more ads, more marketing, more spending. But what if your most powerful growth levers aren’t line items you need to add, but assets you already have?

The key is competitive differentiation: identifying what makes your practice uniquely valuable to patients and telling them about it. Strengths like same-day appointments or telehealth aren’t just operational details, but powerful marketing tools when your competitors don’t offer them. 

Instead of expensive new campaigns, this guide will take you through several practical strategies — from analyzing your competition to optimizing your patient experience — that stem from this core idea. Each one is a way to find and leverage your unique edge to grow your practice.

Think of competitor analysis as studying a game film before a big match. You wouldn't step onto the field without knowing your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Yet many practices do just that.

The SWOT framework helps you analyze your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Here’s how it works:

Start by identifying your top 3 to 5 local competitors — the ones that serve similar patient demographics in your area — and look for the following:

Document everything in a side-by-side comparison here.

For example, you can emphasize your efficiency when patients complain about long wait times at competing practices. If they're frustrated with inflexible scheduling, your evening hours become a competitive advantage.

A thorough review of all their public-facing information is essential for an accurate comparison.

Think of online reviews as word-of-mouth on a massive scale, reaching hundreds of potential patients instead of just the neighbors next door.

Practices that actively manage their online reputation see significant patient growth. The impact is significant: 86% of practices gained up to 250 patients from positive online reviews alone, according to a Tebra survey.

The most successful practices don't leave reviews to chance. 50% of private practices automate their review requests, while 21% incorporate brief review requests into text message reminders or on physical appointment cards.

Once you capture them, put your best reviews to work in your marketing materials. Start by adding them to your Google Business Profile, which is often the first place new patients find you.

Tebra's AI Review Replies and AI Review Insights allow you to respond to patient reviews instantly and spot patterns in feedback — all while staying HIPAA-compliant. Learn more in the video below.

Your online presence extends far beyond your website to every place patients might encounter you online, including key online listings like your Google Business Profile and Facebook business page. For each profile: 

“It always amazes me when other physicians and practices don’t pay attention to their online reputation. This is the number one way that patients who don’t know you will ultimately choose a new provider,” says Dr. Jesse Houghton, MD, FACG, medical director of gastroenterology at Southern Ohio Medical Center. “Failure to update and maintain your online presence is the best way to lose patients to a competitor who does.”

For example, sponsor a marathon and run a campaign online to rally behind the community. That’ll bring your practice visibility and potentially new patients in the short term.

Accessibility means meeting patients where they are, and the data backs this up. Among practices surveyed, 69% offer telehealth and 59% provide same-day appointments.

Patients have spoken clearly about what matters: a remarkable 71% said same-day or next-day appointments would reduce their likelihood of canceling.

Additionally, 32% of practices extend hours into evenings or weekends. These days, that's the baseline expectation. For example, maybe your patient is a teacher who can't take time off or an hourly worker who would lose pay if they take time off. If you accommodate your patients’ needs, you'll soon become their provider of choice.

Offering telehealth and online scheduling completes the modern care experience. These conveniences let patients book appointments when they need them, on their terms.

“Patients love having the option of telehealth visits, especially if they are traveling far to get to your office,” Dr. Houghton says. “This is almost a necessity in this day and age, especially if your office does not offer evening or weekend hours.”

As you get to know your patients, you may notice gaps in their care journey that force them to go elsewhere. There are only so many patients you can cater to. But that doesn't mean you can’t increase your revenue per patient. That's why you need to consider adding ancillary services.

About 34% of practices earn over $100,000 annually from ancillary services alone. Here are the biggest opportunities:

But money shouldn't be your only motivator.

The smartest practices — 68% of them — assessed their patient population before adding any service. They asked simple questions: 

When practices add ancillary services, more than half (51%) notice a revenue increase within 90 days. But it’s only possible to realize this revenue potential when patients know these new services are available.

Patient experience touches every interaction — from the first form click to the follow-up survey. And 74% of practices identify shortening wait times as their top strategy for improving that experience.

But patient experience goes deeper than efficiency. Here are a few ways to improve it:

Modern operations don't mean abandoning a personal touch. They mean using technology to support personalization and create more time for patient care.

Automation helps more than you might expect. Only 12% of practices currently use it to ease staff burden, but it’s an excellent way to offload administrative tasks, such as:

You can do all of this and more using practice management software. Platforms like Tebra centralize everything from an EHR, to billing and practice management, to online reputation management — all in one place. This way, you don’t have to switch between different platforms or invest time in manual processes in the long run.

Growth doesn't require a bigger budget. It requires a commitment to competitive differentiation: recognizing the unique strengths you already possess and amplifying them.

The practices that have sustainable growth aren't just spending more. They deeply understand their competition, actively manage their reputation, and modernize their operations to deliver a superior patient experience.

Private practices have something large healthcare systems can never replicate: the ability to truly know their patients and adapt to changes quickly.

If you take advantage of that agility, you can build a practice that grows in the long run.

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