Adding a free e- product for people signing up

Hello.

As an incentive for people to sign up to for regular newsletters etc I would like to offer them a free e-product.
I do have the mail chimp plugin for people who sign up now, however I would like to have the automated process setup. How can I do this?
Should I set up an e-product store? Would this still give me the opportunity to hold the customer information for my mailing list?

Thank you
Naomi