Having a good serving strategy is a crucial element to winning in volleyball. It is your team's plan for scoring points. As teams have evolved toward systems with fewer passers, the serving strategies have become very similar.

1. If you are serving against a team that runs a "Swing Offense" (in other words, a front row attacker is also a primary passer), it is extremely effective to serve deep to that front row passer. Most attackers practice a 12-15 foot approach. If you back the receiver up about 20-25 feet, you will force them to alter their footwork, and that will make it tougher for them to get into their attack lanes. If that serve-receiver makes a bad pass which causes the setter to come well off the net to receive the pass, then the hitters will probably get a set that makes them attack the ball from a less than perfect position.
2. The quick attack is a precise play based on timing and an attacker's prescribed footwork. If you serve deep to the primary passers a few times, try dropping a short serve into the path of the quick or middle attacker. That disrupts their footwork and throws off the timing of the play.
3. Try a "yo-yo" strategy. The idea is to keep a passer off balance by switching back and forth between deep serves and short serves inside a player's zone. Ideally, the trajectory of both serves should be flat so the passer can't get an early read on the distance of the served ball. Be sure to keep working on the same passer when performing this technique.

Another way to formulate a strategy is to base it on the opponent's rotation. Every team, no matter how good, has some weakness in each side-out rotation. You can take advantage of this weakness by matching up your best server against the other team's specific weakness. For instance, if a team has a side-out rotation where they give up very few points, match up a specific type of server (topspin, floater, flat serve) which you know will cause serve reception problems.

Common sense tells us that a good way to be effective as a server is to serve your best serve, whether it be a floater serve or one with a lot of topspin. Just go back, lineup your target, and make great contact with the ball. Also have a plan when you go back to serve. If your team has a strategy stick to it until it doesn't work. If your team doesn't have a strategy, then watch the other team's warm-up to determine any player tendencies.

Once a strategy has been formulated, be patient. Passers don't often crack until late in the match. If all else fails serve to the player furthest away and behind the setter.