National Geographic uses a very clever twist for lead generation.

Their site is structured into thematic areas - and each article within that area functions as a landing page for lead generation.

Let’s say someone comes through reddit.com on a picture page - NG assumes that this user has an interest in photography. They therefore offer a free “field guide for photography” as a download in exchange for an opt-in and a valid email address.

This dataset is later used for subscription marketing and doesn’t only contain the users personal information, but also a first indicator on what kind of products (e.g. photography-related) would be relevant for the user.

Nicely done and an excellent example on how publishers can turn content pages into lead generation pages.