A greater focus on personalised communications may help to improve engagement in financial services, according to a report from Pimfa.
The research, called 'A Little More Personalisation', surveyed over 500 adults with more than £10,000 that could be invested and sought the views of those that described themselves as advised investors, do-it-yourself investors and non-investors.
It found more than a fifth (22 per cent) of those who identified as non-investors would be encouraged to invest if they were able to access some form of basic personalisation compared with only 12 per cent who said they would invest using generic guidance as is currently the case.
However, fully tailored personalised advice was identified as the best way to encourage greater saving and investing, with 51 per cent of those identifying as non-investors saying they would be most likely to start investing if this was something they were able to access.
The research further found that 68 per cent of non-investors said they probably, or definitely, would not start investing within the next 12 months.
The reasons given for not doing so ranged from perceptions of the investment world as intimidating (56 per cent), a lack of exposure to investing within their social circles (77 per cent) and feeling emotionally apprehensive or overwhelmed about investing (54 per cent).
Simon Harrington, head of public affairs at Pimfa and author of the report, said: “Pimfa has always been strongly committed to fostering a culture of saving and investment within the UK.
“We sought to commission this report in order to test our own hypothesis that providing non-advised consumers with targeted, personalised guidance to encourage investment decisions would help more people overcome the behavioural barriers which prevent them from investing.
“In this area, our findings are somewhat disappointing.”
Moreover, the research found that only 46 per cent of non-investors understood the risk of the value of their cash savings being eroded by inflation over time.
Meanwhile, among those that described themselves as investors - whether advised or DIY investors - the reason cited by the majority for them beginning their investment journey was hearing about the investment experiences of others within their social network.
Hearing about the investment experience of friends and family was cited by 45 per cent of advised investors and 31 per cent of DIY investors as the reason they began investing themselves.
The research found that 77 per cent of advised investors and 70 per cent of DIY investors described their financial status as secure, compared with only 59 per cent of non-investors.
This lack of financial security helped contribute to a lack of confidence among non-investors when it came to managing their investments, with 49 per cent of non-investors saying they believed investing was only for those that already had a large amount of money.
