Keeping Information When Merging Duplicate Leads

Keeping Information When Merging Duplicate Leads

We are setting up a new website that will have multiple Zoho CRM lead web forms included. If somebody wants to download a white paper from one session, then may want to come back and download an infographic, we'd like to capture that interaction all on a single lead record. We will be asking for their email address for each download (would rather not ask for name if that's possible). 

It seems best to set the option to not allow dupes then hand merge when we get an email notification. But, what's the best way to record this lead activity within the lead itself so we can report out on who is doing/downloading what? Is it an Activity? Since we will want to have an email sent out to confirm their download with a link, would it be a campaign instead? I am assuming we can use a workflow to update non dupes, then manually enter the correct information to kick off the workflow for when we merge dupes. 

Is the answer different if we start using SalesIQ, and if so, how?