This paper presents design strategies for the optimized design of the rotor poles in synchronous permanent magnet machines. The strategies are aimed at the reduction of torque ripple and cogging torque. Sinusoidally rounded magnet and rotor step-skewing are investigated, then a new proposal to reduce the cost of magnetic pole made in rare earth is presented. The goal is to introduce into a rotor pole, a fraction of low cost ferrite magnets on either side of the main rare earth NdFeB permanent magnet. The design procedure begins with some analytical consideration that allows to optimize the geometrical design of the magnets. Using Finite Element (FE) simulations, the effectiveness of the analytical model is verified and the results of the various methods are compared.